Capitol Reef National Park

We departed Moab about 9:00 on Friday September 6, and arrived at Thousand Lakes RV Park in Torrey UT after a pleasant drive of about 156 miles.  Along the way we stopped at the John Wesley Powell River History Museum in Green River UT.  

From Wikipedia:

"John Wesley Powell (March 24, 1834 – September 23, 1902) was an American geologist, U.S. Army soldier, explorer of the American West, professor at Illinois Wesleyan University, and director of major scientific and cultural institutions. He is famous for his 1869 geographic expedition, a three-month river trip down the Green and Colorado rivers, including the first official U.S. government-sponsored passage through the Grand Canyon."

A green Tesla Cyper Truck? And a Tesla Supercharger in Green River? Unbelievable!

After the museum visit we had a nice lunch at the Tamarisk Restaurant with a number of other caravan members. I'm not as surprised to see so many sports cars in Green River UT as I am to see they all were able to park together at a crowed restaurant parking lot at lunch time.

Green River UT is known for its fine melons.  After arriving at Thousand Lakes RV Park in Torrey UT we had a travel meeting and were rewarded with a variety of fresh sweet Green River melons.

Dinner at Rim Rock Restuarant in Torrey

On Saturday we had a free day to explore Capitol Reef National Park.  

From Wikipedia:

The park was named for its whitish Navajo Sandstone cliffs with dome formations—similar to the white domes often placed on capitol buildings—that run from the Fremont River to Pleasant Creek on the Waterpocket Fold. Locally, reef refers to any rocky barrier to land travel, just as ocean reefs are barriers to sea travel.

The park includes the historic town of Fruita, a Mormon settlement established about 1880. Brigham Young sent settlers out to the remote corners of Utah to "...make gardens, orchards and vineyards, and render the earth so pleasant that when you look upon your labors you may do so with pleasure, and that angels may delight to come and visit your beautiful locations." They certainly succeeded at Fruita. Located in a canyon on the banks of the Fremont River and Sulfur Creek, it is an excellent place to grow fruit. There still exist 22 orchards of peaches, apricots, pears, cherries, plums and apples, now managed by the NPS. Visitors can eat all the fruit they want as they walk through the orchards. If they want to take some with them it's $2.00 per pound. Only one orchard was still open at this date. We ate all the Rome Beauty apples we could while in the orchard, and then carried out 3 pounds for later. They were delicious!

We bought a sack of gourmet burgers from Capitol Burgers, a food truck parked near our camp.  Gourmet burgers in Torrey UT, a town with population of only 182 poor lost souls you say? Yes, it is so!  The chef and owner Luke Fowles has a degree from Le Cordon Bleu and has worked at some of the finest restaurants in the west.  Actually Torrey is the home of at least 4 such highly rated establishments.  You can read about them HERE.  

Photo credit: The Salt Lake City Tribune

I had a nice conversation with Luke as he was packing up the truck at closing time for the day.  He has family that has moved to North Carolina.

Next we move to Ruby's Inn Campground at Bryce Canyon City UT.